India’s Mission 44 in Occupied Kashmir

Muhammad Faraz - The success of Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2014 Indian general elections (parliamentary & LoK Sabha) and formation of a steady government is seen by the Hindu extremist elements in India as a great achievement.

The saffron brigade’s ambitions did not stop here and it now intends to implement ‘Mission 44’ in the Occupied Kashmir. To achieve this, BJP is going full throttle by launching a massive media campaign, including social networking sites. Mission 44 is BJP’s plan to secure victory in 44 Kashmir assembly seats out of the total 87 seats. Weeks after the devastating floods that hit the Kashmir valley, BJP announced an over ambitious plan to win 44 assembly seats in Indian Occupied Kashmir. The Mission 44 translates BJP’s agenda of revival and implementation of Hindutva ideology through out India. The ruling party is fixated with the magical number required to form a strong government in J&K assembly. In light of the above, the BJP plans to install a Hindu chief minister in the Muslim majority state. The grand plan further includes reliance on mass scale voting in Jammu and Ladakh regions dominated by Hindus and Buddhists respectively and hoping an election boycott campaign in the Muslim majority Kashmir valley.

To implement Mission 44, the BJP has used a three pronged policy by not distributing the flood relief aid evenhandedly. The aid for flood is being used as bribe by BJP for the ongoing Kashmir elections, using local clerics and Muslim candidates to persuade local population to vote for BJP (Gen [Retd] Ata-ul-Husnain also being used for the same purpose) finally the pre-fed computerised machines with data of voters already installed in them to rig the elections.

The five-phase Kashmir assembly elections completed its first with no considerable achievement for BJP. If Mission 44 is analysed realistically, out of the house of 87 the Kashmir valley accounts for 46 seats and it seems next to impossible for BJP to secure even one seat in the Muslim majority area. Nevertheless the party is hugely relying on call from the pro-freedom and resistance forces to boycott the elections in the Kashmir valley. The BJP only has a remote chance of wining a couple of seats in the valley, only if the election are boycotted by pro-freedom Muslims and every single Kashmiri Pandit (migrants) cast his vote in favour of BJP, which is again highly unlikely as not every Kashmiri Pandit is a BJP supporter. The Hindu nationalist party under PM Modi is trying every trick in the book to lure voters in its favour. All these means are being applied to just one end, which is the abrogation of article 370 with an aim to fully merge Jammu and Kashmir with India.

Article 370 deals with the special status of Kashmir with the Indian union, it also prohibits other Indian nationals to settle in the valley as Kashmiri citizens, thus protecting the ethnic demography of the area, which is predominantly Muslim. Bottom line of all analysis is that the chance of BJP enjoying success in the Kashmir elections appear to be negligible.